Trade statistics are published in aggregate, weeks late, and rounded into categories that hide the item you care about. Meanwhile the movement itself is observable in near real time: vessel positions are broadcast continuously, berths and yards are visible from orbit, and a bill of lading names a consignee and a commodity long before any statistic does.
The gap between those two is the whole opportunity. One is a report about last quarter; the other is a delivery date for the transformer a campus is waiting on, available while there is still time to act on it.